St. Benedict contributed more
than anyone else to the rise of monasticism in the West.
His Rule was
the foundational document for thousands of religious
communities in the middle ages. Monks and nuns in these
communities are known as Benedictines; the monks wear a
cowled black habit as seen at left.

Benedict's story circulated first as part of Gregory the
Great's 6th-century Dialogues, which
recounted a great number of miracles wrought by the
saint in his lifetime.

Portraits

The earliest image of St. Benedict that I have yet seen is
a 10th century fresco
featuring one of the saint's miracles related by Gregory
the Great.
The fresco is in the 8th century church beneath San
Crisogono in Trastevere. In it, the saint wears a
black habit with a peaked cowl, as he does also in an 11th or 12th
century ivory from the Veneto.

In later portraits, St. Benedict is usually shown holding
a crozier and book and wearing his Benedictine habit,
sometimes over an alb
(example).
The crozier, normally a sign of episcopal status,
signifies an abbot
when it is carried by a person in monastic garb. The book
is St. Benedict's Rule.

Sometimes instead
of a crozier he will carry a tied bundle of rods to
symbolize the strength of monks who live together in a
community (example).

Occasionally a
portrait will use some other attribute drawn from an
episode in the hagiography -- for example, a broken glass
cup (example)
refers to an
episode of attempted poisoning, and a wine flagon (example) figures in another
episode (cached)
involving a flagon hidden away by one of the monks.

Narrative Images

During the middle ages a large number of image cycles
depicted episodes from Benedict's life, especially his
miracles. Perhaps the most famous
cycle is the
one in Florence by Spinello Aretino (1387), but
also see the vast cycle of frescoes in Monte Oliveto
Maggiore (1498-1502) begun
by Signorelli and completed
by Il Sodoma,the
15th-century frescos in the Badia Fiorentina abbey
in Florence, another
fresco cycle in Plankstetten, Bavaria, and so on.
These cycles can be "read" with the help of Gregory's work
(see below).

Feast day: March 21 (changed
to July 11 in the Roman Catholic Church in 1969)